Bill Cosby 'shocked' at Obama's statement on Harvard prof's arrest

By
Jimmy Orr /
July 23, 2009

View video

Courtesy, WZLX "Karlson and McKenzie"

(Read caption)
Bill Cosby said he was "shocked" to hear President Obama weigh-in on the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. on a Boston radio show this morning. "If I'm the president of the United States, I don't care how much pressure people want to put on it about race, I'm keeping my mouth shut."

"I've heard about five different reports [on the details of the arrest]," Cosby said on Boston's WZLX. "If I'm the president of the United States, I don't care how much pressure people want to put on it about race, I'm keeping my mouth shut."

The comedian appeared to have dialed his comments back a bit in a later interview on Boston's FOX 25 television station. Cosby cautioned those from coming up with their own conclusions, but gave the president some leeway.

“People who have not been there, people who don’t know are beginning to have their own personal feelings, but they weren’t there,” Cosby said.

“Does this include the president?” asked the FOX25 reporter.

“It includes everybody,” Cosby said. “[But] I would have to take into consideration that he lived in Cambridge for some time so he may know more than he’s saying about situations of that sort,” Cosby said.